Sacred Heart Church
A rubble sandstone church
A listed building
Built by Edmund Kirby, Liverpool
Stained glass by Mayer
Germany
Sits on Tyldesley Road
Now unused
Centre of a thriving
Irish parish
Immigrants for coalmines
And for mills
School beside it
Children happy playing
Now exposed to winter
And its chills
Parish house
Also rubble sandstone
A cosy home for me
One summer time
Home from Rome
I guarded the estate
Even then
A parish in decline
Closed these twenty years
But not demolished
A preservation order
Slapped upon
But wet and wind and weather
Will accomplish
What fate’s bulldozer
Lately might have done
Some things in life
Are hard
To say goodbye to
Their loveliness
Their memory lingers on
And Hindsford church
A pretty church
Says Pevsner
Will one day follow
A sadly setting sun
Brian Fahy
12 May 2021
Erris Poetry 